A tiny beach restaurant in an isolated South African fishing village was named the best in the world on Monday.
Chef Kobus van der Merwe, who only learned to cook when he was 30, forages every day for ingredients on the wild Atlantic shore of the Western Cape near his Wolfgat restaurant, where he also makes his own bread and butter.
The Wolfgat just opened last year in a 130-year-old cottage and cave on the beach at Paternoster.
It's seven-course tasting menu costs the equivalent of €53, a fraction of what you are likely to pay at a top Paris table.
But its humble setting, and Van der Merwe's belief in sustainable, back-to-basics cooking won over the judges of the inaugural World Restaurant Awards in the French capital.
The 38-year-old can only feed 20 people at a sitting, which usually lasts two and half hours.
With dishes such as twice-cooked laver (seaweed), angelfish with bokkom sambal and wild garlic masala, limpets, mussels and sea vegetables harvested within sight of its "stoep" (porch), it also won the prize for best "Off-Map Destination".
Bearded Van der Merwe - a former food blogger - said apart from the influence of the subtle spices of local Cape Malay cooking, his...
